Chaos control with ion propulsion

Abstract

The escape dynamics around the triangular Lagrangian point L-5 in the real Sun-Earth-Moon-Spacecraft system is investigated. Appearance of the finite-time chaotic behavior suggests that widely used methods and concepts of dynamical system theory can be useful in constructing a desired mission design. Existing chaos control methods are modified in such a way that we are able to protect a test particle from escape. We introduce initial condition maps (ICMs) in order to have a suitable numerical method to describe the motion in high-dimensional phase space. Results show that the structure of ICMs can be split into two well-defined domains. One of these two parts has a regular contiguous shape and is responsible for long-time escape; it is a long-lived island. The other one shows a filamentary fractal structure in the ICMs. The short-time escape is governed by this object. This study focuses on a low-cost method that successfully transfers a reference trajectory between these two regions using an appropriate continuous control force. A comparison of the Earth-Moon transfer is also presented to show the efficiency of our method.